At a town hall meeting in Brick, Gov. Christie gave a new and even more dubious excuse for delays in Hurricane Sandy aid: That he decided to put extra effort into helping the poor.
(Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)

Gov. Chris Christie has given a number of shifting excuses for the delays in distributing Hurricane Sandy aid. But the latest one has a special gall:

After months spent blaming the federal government, Christie now says the process was also slowed because he was so busy helping the poor.

“I made the decision early on that getting money to the people who need it the most was more important than getting it out as fast as possible,” he said last week.

This is the same governor who vetoed a minimum wage increase, effectively hiked taxes on the working poor by scaling back the earned-income tax credit and tried to raid huge sums of money intended for affordable housing.

Yet to prove he now has the needy at heart, Christie cited a misleading statistic: 70 percent of Sandy aid is going to low- and moderate-income families, he said.

That refers to the housing programs. But when you factor in all Sandy programs — including infrastructure, small business and aid to local governments — the state has actually spent just 40 percent, according to its most recent report to the feds at the end of 2013.

The federal requirement is at least 50 percent. The state’s housing percentage is higher so that its overall average will meet that minimum; it doesn’t show that Christie’s administration is doing anything more than it needs to for lower-income people.

And how does this explain the delays? Income verification is something the state knew it had to do, that any competent contractor working with federal funds needs to do. It doesn’t take nine months — since the close of grant applications in July — to do it right.

The governor made no mention of the incompetent contractor his administration fired, his refusal to send top Sandy officials to a series of legislative hearings or the political stink around the entire process.

But if he thinks this latest excuse will satisfy anyone, he’s dreaming.